


Involved

by anneapocalypse



Series: A Little More Forthcoming [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Freeside, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2011-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-21 01:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anneapocalypse/pseuds/anneapocalypse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Julie tries to let Veronica down gently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Involved

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr, for a prompt from Sachehund.

“She’s a sweet girl.”

“Mmm.” Beth has her combat knife out, peeling the rind off the second banana yucca with deft fingers. The food supply at the Mission has been looking better lately. Looks as though someone finally took care of the rad problem in the water supply. “She seems like it.”

“So she came here?” Julie shifts on her overturned milk crate, where they’re sitting behind the counter. Late morning to early afternoon is about the quietest Freeside gets. Noise and violence are ever-present things but they tend to concentrate in the late night and early morning. So around midday, sometimes, there’s an hour or two of relative quiet. Time enough to slip away from the Mormon Fort, just for a little while.

“She did.” Beth tosses the rinds into the compost bucket. “Seen her once before, with that courier kid. Marched in here ready to spout ten random facts about the NCR for a free meal. I think he was actually disappointed when I told him we were now serving locals as well. This time she was alone, though. Came right up to the counter there, said, ‘You’re Major Kieran, right?’ kind of shy, almost. I said yes, and she said…” A rueful half-smile flickers across Beth’s face. “‘You know Dr. Farkas?’”

“She called me ‘Dr. Farkas?’” Julie smiles in spite of herself. “I remember when you’d call me that. Took you forever to call me ‘Julie.’”

Beth flashes a grin. “Military habit. So I say, ‘You know Julie?’ and she…gosh, I almost felt bad, Jul, she blushed real hard and said, ‘Only a little.’ And then she turned to go, and then she looked back at me and said, ‘She’s a really good woman. Deserves…good. Hope you are that. Because she deserves it.’ And then she paused, like she realized she’d said that already. Then looked hard at me. Then looked away. And she left. Didn’t even give me a chance to offer her food.”

Julie’s the one blushing now. “Oh, goodness. I didn’t mean to tell her it was you, but she… guessed.”

“What happened, anyway?”

“It was the first time she’d come by herself. She’d been before, but always with him.”

“He still come around the Fort?”

“Only when he wants a discount on medical supplies.”

“You give him a discount?”

“No.”

Beth laughs as she quarters the peeled fruit on a green plate, and divides the quarters into thinner strips. “Not fond of him, I take it.”

Julie shrugs, reaching for a slice. “Like most folks, he’s really only interested in the Strip and the Dam.”

Beth nods. “That’s usually the way of it.”

“That, and…one of my doctors went off traveling with him. For about a week.”

Beth raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t go well, I take it?”

“From what he tells me, they had… disagreements.” Julie knows more, but what Arcade said to her, he said in confidence. “And when she came in, she had that…that look on her face. Like she’d had disagreements with him, too. And I asked her if she needed a place to stay for the night, and she said no, she could make it home, but she was hoping to speak with me first, if I had a moment.” Julie toys with a flat black yucca seed. “I didn’t really, but – something in her eyes.” Beth nods; she knows. In their line of work you see your share of desperation, violence and sorrow – and sometimes, you end up looking into the eyes of someone who needs nothing more than for just one person to listen _._

“I thought she wanted to talk about him, about whatever had happened, but she just shook her head and said he hadn’t turned out to be her friend and that was that. And I still had it in my head that she just needed to talk, about anything, even if she didn’t want to talk about the thing specifically that had happened, and… well, you know me.” Julie shrugs sheepishly. “I know my way around chems and numbers but I can be dense as a rock when it comes to… those things.”

Beth appears to be swallowing laughter, but her smile is gentle. “How long did it take you to figure it out?”

“I think I started to get it when she said, ‘Actually, I just wanted to see  _you_.’”

“And how long into the conversation was that?”

“About fourteen minutes.” In Freeside time, that’s embarrassingly long. Beth sets down her knife and rests her hand on Julie’s shoulder. “You’re feeling bad about it.”

“She started to say all these…” Julie drops her eyes to the floor, “all these  _nice_ _things_  about me-”

“Oh,  _compliments_. I can see why that got to you.”

“Now you’re making fun of me.”

Beth catches her eye, and touches the black toe of her boot to Julie’s worn leather one where they meet on the bare concrete of the floor, where the ancient tile’s cracked and peeled away. “Only a little. I do understand, Jul.”

“I guess the part that got to me was when she said I was the first person she’d…cared for, in a long time. And then she said she didn’t even know if I was interested in women… like she was giving me an out.”

“Which I know you didn’t take.” Beth leans back on her crate, against the wall behind her, stretching her legs out in front of her, high lace-up boots over snug gray jeans. Her charcoal v-neck t-shirt is comfortably wrinkled and coming untucked at one hip in a way Julie’s eyes keep returning to.

“Because I can’t lie to save my life.”

“I like that about you, you know.”

“It’s inconvenient sometimes. Particularly in my my line of work.” Julie pushes up the sagging rolled sleeve of her threadbare workshirt. It’s warm in the ruined store that houses the Freeside Mission, and being inside means she can bare a little skin without risk of sunburn.  ”I suppose it was probably best anyway. On the chance she might hear it from someone else later.”

Beth raises an eyebrow and says around a mouthful of yucca fruit, “So what did you say to her, exactly?”

“‘I’m sorry, but I’m involved with someone.’ My exact words.”

“Ah, so we’re  _involved_ , yeah?”

“Is  _that_  what you-” Julie picks up a piece of yucca rind and flings it at Beth, who bursts out laughing. “Yes, I thought that was safe to say. Anyway-“

“Please just tell me how long it took you to settle on that phrasing and I will stop picking on you.”

“I refuse to answer that question.”

“Then I refuse to lay off.”

“That’s fair. Anyway, she immediately said, ‘Is it the Major?’ and that’s where I lost my script. I sort of sat there with my mouth half-open and she kind of laughed.” Julie stares at her hands, turning the seed over in her palm. “In that ‘I’m laughing so I don’t cry’ sort of way. And she said, ‘It’s okay, Doctor. Not like I’m gonna march over to the Mission and try to duke it out with her or something.’ And I didn’t know what else to say so I said, ‘Yes, it’s her,’ and she nodded, and said, ‘I’d better let you get back to work. Sorry to bother you.’ And she left. At which point, I guess she came here.”

Beth nods, her face turning serious again as she reached for another slice of fruit. “You’re still feeling bad.”

“Yes.”

“Anything I can do?”

“No. I’m just worried about her. Hope she’s all right. Hope she made it home safe. Wherever home is.”

“It isn’t your fault, you know. Not her feelings and certainly not whatever happened with that courier.”

“I know.” Julie reaches for another slice. The bite she takes off it is miniscule, and she chews slowly – not merely to savor the fruit, but to prolong the time. This is what she allows herself and even this is extravagant but she allows it anyway: time enough for two banana yuccas between them and all the talking that time allows, one day a week. And one night a week not for talking.


End file.
